Smallpox, Syphilis and Salvation by Sheryl Persson

Author:Sheryl Persson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Medical/Infectious Diseases
ISBN: 978-1-921497-57-5
Publisher: Exisle Publishing Pty Ltd
Published: 2009-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

EHRLICH’S INFLUENCE EXTENDS TO CANCER TREATMENT

Paul Ehrlich’s legacy is perpetual. A scientific symposium to commemorate the 150th anniversary of his birth and to honour his historic contribution to medical research was held in March 2004 in Frankfurt. Among the institutions that organised the symposium, Combating Pathogens and Cancer, were the Paul Ehrlich Institute, Georg Speyer Haus, the Paul Ehrlich Foundation and the Paul Ehrlich Society for Chemotherapy.

The title of the symposium reflects the fact that the human species is in a constant tug-of-war for survival with micro-organisms and disease. In 1945, when penicillin became widely available as an accepted treatment for syphilis coupled with public health measures, the fight against the ‘great pockes’ appeared to have been won. As it transpired, however, new strains of the spirochaete Treponema pallidum developed resistance to penicillin and other antibiotics, as have other diseases, due to the overuse of these drugs. Since the 1950s the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases has been on the rise.

The World Health Organization reports approximately 12 million cases of syphilis each year. In the same way that AIDS is having an impact on other re-emerging diseases, there is a two- to five-fold increased risk of acquiring HIV infection if syphilis is present. It is to be lamented that in the 21st century approximately 500,000 infants, most of them in the developing world, are being born each year with congenital syphilis.

New campaigns against syphilis are ongoing and although Ehrlich may have hoped for more with Salvarsan, he may never have envisioned just how far-reaching the repercussions of his discovery of ‘magic bullets’ would be. For most of us living in economically advanced countries, because of the phenomenal developments in medicine that took place in the twentieth century, the fear of catching and dying from infectious diseases has diminished. Smallpox, bubonic plague, polio, diphtheria and their ilk are no longer the threat they once were and the names of the diseases themselves are hardly ever spoken in non-medical circles. Today, the diagnosis which engenders most fear is cancer. Since vaccination has been used to control the contagious diseases that were once universal scourges, cancer has taken their place and is now one of the leading causes of death in developed countries.

Again Paul Ehrlich’s legacy can be seen around us in the 21st century. He developed the first chemotherapeutic drug and one of the main treatments for cancer remains chemotherapy. Cancer can be viewed either as the collective name of more than 100 different conditions, or one condition with many different target sites in the body. It is the uncontrolled growth and spread of cells that can affect almost any tissue.[51] Lung, colorectal and stomach cancer are among the five most common cancers in the world for both men and women. Among men, lung and stomach cancer are the most common cancers, and for women it is breast and cervical cancer. More than 11 million people are diagnosed with cancer every year and cancer kills 7 million people annually, amounting to 12.5 per cent of all deaths worldwide.

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